Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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223. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason the Revenue Commissioners did not include the various provisions of section 110 in the published list of tax expenditures published on their website when the section clearly provides various extraordinary and unusual forms of relief (details supplied); if he will now provide the tax cost of the tax expenditures granted under section 110; and if, in future, the Revenue Commissioners' statistics unit will provide a complete and comprehensive list of tax expenditures and their costings. [24645/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Revenue website provides a review of the main tax expenditures; however it is not an exhaustive list.

For information to be analysed by Revenue, it must first be provided separately on a tax return form. This is not currently the case with section 110 companies and therefore tax costings cannot be provided at this time.

The tax return is designed to capture the information necessary to correctly determine a taxpayer's liability to tax. Certain reliefs are available for taxpayers to claim, and those claims are generally made through a tax return. Efforts to simplify tax returns has led to some tax reliefs being required in aggregate form on tax returns.  Where it is not necessary to officially 'claim' a relief, it will not generally feature in the tax return. In the last decade the CT1 form has more than doubled in length to accommodate the myriad scenarios of tax affairs possible. Continued expansion of the complexity of the CT1 return is not seen as sustainable.

A number of concerns have been raised recently about the possible use of aggressive tax practices by some section 110 companies to avoid paying tax on Irish property transactions. In light of these concerns, and due to the highly technical and complex nature of the legislation, I recently proposed an amendment to section 110 Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. This amendment targets the issues that have been raised and will ensure that the Irish tax base is appropriately protected. Further targeted proposals in relation to the use of funds in the Irish property market are also being considered.